On November 20-21, the Fourth International Seminar for Peace and the Abolition of Foreign Military Bases will take place in the province of Guantánamo, Silvio Platero, president of the Cuban Movement for Peace and Sovereignty of the Peoples, announced this Thursday, November 12, at the International Press Center.

The event, organized by the Cuban Movement for Peace and the World Peace Council, will be hosted in Mariana Grajales hall at the provincial Plaza de la Revolución.

One of the objectives of the gathering is to promote the exchange of experiences on the consequences of foreign military installations around the world.

Platero noted that the Cuban province was chosen to host the event as it is home to the oldest U.S. military base outside of that country’s territory, the illegal Guantánamo Naval Base.

He added that in the case of Cuba, this site is the permanent focus of actions that threaten the island’s people, sovereignty and national integrity.

The illegally occupied territory is at odds with the CELAC Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace, adopted in Havana in 2014.

The U.S. took possession of Guantánamo Bay as part of the “Cuban–American Treaty” which was imposed on the island in 1903. The lease was cancelled by Cuba in 1960, but the U.S. has refused to accept this.

A solution to the conflict has been one of the main Cuban demands since the triumph of the Revolution, and constitutes a key element in the ongoing process towards the normalization of relations between the two countries.

These international seminars have been held every two years in Cuba since 2008. During the press conference regarding this year’s event, it was reported that they will continue until the Guantánamo Naval Base is removed and the territory returned to the island.

So far over 200peace activists,including representativesof the 40member countriesof the World Peace Council, have confirmedtheir attendance.

The World Peace Council is a nongovernmental organization of multinational character, which was established in Poland in 1950, while the Cuban Movement for Peace and Sovereignty of the Peoples is a founding member of the Council; its first president having been Fernando Ortiz.